Trading rules:

1.) Don’t lose money
2.) Pick a proven strategy and stick with it.
3.) Focus on preservation of capital, especially when the market is being “difficult”.
4.) Cut losses quickly. Honor your stops.
5.) Read rule #1 at the beginning and end of each day.
6.) Focus on capital appreciation when the market is trending.
7.) Don’t have more that 10% of your assets invested in any one stock position, unless you are an insider intimately familiar with the company.
8.) If a stock is dropping and you are looking to go long, or if it is rising and you are looking to short, let the chart action confirm your thinking before you pull the trigger.
9.) Use position sizing when buying long or shorting. If your hard dollar stop loss is $1,000, and your stop price is $2.50 below (above on shorting), you should buy (or short) no more than 400 shares.
10.) Don’t agonize about “coulda, woulda, shoulda”.